


seven days

by jestbee



Series: Fic Every Day in June 2018 [2]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: 2010 Phan, Established Relationship, M/M, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 08:17:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14828702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jestbee/pseuds/jestbee
Summary: "A week," Dan said."Yes. Seven days.""That's all I'm giving it," Dan warned, "After that I'm coming straight back over."





	seven days

**Author's Note:**

> I played pretty fast and loose with Dan's university stories and put a few of them in the first week when in reality they probably didn't happen until later. But hey, it's fanfiction, it's supposed to be fun.

**Day One.**

Four cinder block walls and a window that looks out onto a bin-store. This is his world now, and the echo of the solid fire door shutting behind his parents as they left him there is still ringing in the air. 

Four walls, a window, and the ever-expanding loneliness that comes with the realisation that he is alone. 

Flickering below the surface is, of course, the joy of finally being free. Whatever that means, but without the far-off sounds of his family moving around his house, he just feels an ache in the pit of his stomach that this is all too much too fast. 

He pulls out his phone. He'd promised he wouldn't do this so soon after moving in.

He'd only been at Phil's last week, so technically he'd been living in Manchester for all of that time. But now it's official, his xbox sits on the desk and a black bin liner full of his plushies is crammed in on the end of his tiny bed to prove it. These are his things, here instead of in his parent's house. 

So it feels different. 

Phil is a bus ride away rather than a three hour train, but with so much other change he still feels as far away and untouchable as he had before. 

"You should give it a week," Phil had said. 

His face was illuminated by the harsh yellow light of his bedside lamp and his hair was all rucked up on one side. They were lounging on his bed, sleepy and comfortable, when Dan had said that he probably had to get up because his parents were coming to drop off his stuff. 

He'd said that he'd do that and then he'd come back. Phil hadn't agreed at all. 

"You can't just stay with me all the time." 

Dan felt his bottom lip move in to a pout. Wasn't that the point? Phil had his own place and they were finally, finally, in the same place after what felt like so long., wasn't he supposed to spend all his time with Phil? 

"Don't," Phil said, poking at his lip with the end of his finger. Dan pretended to bite him. "I don't mean I don't want to see you. I do want to see you. Lots. But you should give it one week, just at the beginning, get to know your new housemates." 

"A week," Dan said. 

"Yes. Seven days." 

"That's all I'm giving it," Dan warned, "After that I'm coming straight back over." 

Phil pulled him so that he was underneath his arm, head pillowed on his bare chest. "You'd better." 

"How do I even talk to people?" Dan had said later, when he'd finally gotten up and they were saying goodbye at the door. He didn't want to leave, he was definitely prolonging it. Phil could tell. 

"Prop your door open with a crate of beer," Phil suggested. 

"Beer?" Dan says. "I thought you always said a box of Haribo." 

Phil laughed, warm and familiar. 

"Haribo doesn't come in boxes, Dan. It's just the PG YouTube version. Definitely beer."

Dan sighed loudly for effect. "When will the lies end, AmazingPhil?" 

"Shut up."

He pushed at Dan's arm, and Dan pushed back and they tussled for a few moments before falling into a hug. 

"I'll miss you," Dan said, feeling pathetic and immature.

"Me too," Phil whispered in his ear. "But we've gone longer. Just seven days. A week of getting to know people without your weird older friend knocking about." 

Dan is thinking of packing all of that in. In the middle of his tiny room, he looks over at the box of beer cans unopened by his closed door, and stares down at his phone. 

_Dan: this sucks it looks like a prison cell_

The phone vibrates in his hand before he even has chance to put it away. 

_Phil: 7 days_

_Dan: i'd make it worth your while if you let me come back_

_Phil: Stop. You're a menace. 7 days._

_Dan: you sound like the girl from the ring_

_Phil: You're not going to die._

_Dan: says you. i could, you'd feel bad then_

_Phil: Dramatic_

_Dan: shut up_

_Phil: Love you too ^ - ^_

Dan sighs. If Phil is sticking to his guns about this whole week alone thing then Dan will go along with it. He's not going out there though. 

He drags over the small monitor he's brought with him and plugs in his xbox. He shoves enough boxes over to make space on his bed enough for him to rest, arranging his duvet behind him to lean against. 

The music for Halo starts through the crappy speakers and he pulls the curtains closed at his window. 

It's tiny and it's dark but he can deal with it. For seven days at least. 

Day one is the worst. 

 

**Day Two.**

He emerges to use the bathroom and to meet the takeaway guy at the door. 

He makes some progress on a brand new Halo campaign and carefully avoids Phil's texts about what his flatmates are like by texting him random jokes about pokemon. 

The day passes and even though he feels ridiculously lonely, he thinks it's probably for the best. 

 

**Day Three.**

The knock on his door comes early afternoon. He's finished off the rest of the cold pizza and he's just thinking about how he can go make a pot noodle without running into his housemates when the loud sound echoes around his room. 

"Hello?" he says, opening the door. 

"Hi!" The guy at his door is wearing tracksuit bottoms and his hair is buzzed close to his head and he looks just as surprised to see Dan and Dan is to see him. "I'm Jordan." 

"Hey." 

"A bunch of us are going to the shops for food. We hadn't seen you so we didn't know if you were in here but... would you like to come?" 

"Yeah," Dan says, looking for an excuse. "I've, um, been a bit ill." 

"That sucks," Jordan says, "You good now?" 

"Yeah." 

There's a beat of silence where Jordan appears to be waiting for something. 

"So... shops?" 

"Oh!" Dan says, "Yeah. Um, let me..." 

He gestures down at his clothes. 

Jordan nods and Dan closes the door awkwardly. He changes out of his pyjamas, admonishing himself for agreeing to go with them. 

_Dan: i'm going to the shops with my flatmates_

He grabs his wallet and runs a hand uselessly through his hair and then there's nothing for it except to go. 

The group of them are waiting at the front door for him and he joins them silently, nodding at a few of them. 

_Phil: Good! Have fun!!_

That's a disgusting use of exclamation marks, Dan thinks as he looks at Phil's message, especially from someone with a supposed English degree. 

He's about to say as much but a girl at his elbow leans over in to his personal space. 

"You texting your girlfriend?" she ask. 

"Er, no." Dan replies, quickly putting his phone back in his pocket. 

"My boyfriend is at home and I miss him already. That's why I thought... ha. never mind." 

Dan just smiles at her and nods like he understands. He could expand on her point, he could sympathise about long distance relationships or about how he also misses his boyfriend, but he doesn't. He doesn't want to get to know these people all that much. 

The rest of the walk to the shops is painfully silent. The group all following each other, a few attempts at small talk in select pockets, but mostly just quiet and awkward.

He doesn't get another wave of painful loneliness until he's in the cheese aisle. It's an odd place for it, but that's what happens. They'd all split up upon entering the shop which was probably for the best because he'd been mildly afraid he was going to have to wander around the shop with a huge group of people, all of them clueless about what the hell constituted the correct 'weekly shop'. 

He has a block of cheddar in one hand and it occurs to him that beyond plain cheese sandwiches he has absolutely no clue what to do with it. He's adrift in a huge supermarket, in an even bigger city. Alone and scared and he just needs a friendly voice. 

He'd promised Phil he wouldn't ring, that he'd give it seven days, and he wants to prove that he can. Calling his parents feels like admitting defeat, falling back into old roles when he's supposed to be out here being all independent and grown up. 

His grandma, he decides, she'll know what to do. 

The conversation doesn't last too long, and mostly consists of her telling him to get it together, but it's enough to make him put the block of cheese in his shopping basket and move on to another aisle. 

Day three has its challenges, but he gets through it. 

 

**Day Four.**

Once they know he's in his room they insist on knocking all the time. 

Around lunchtime they ask him whether he'd like to make food with them, which results in the fire alarm going off, and some pasta setting on fire in a waterless pan. 

He almost regrets answering his door, but he keeps doing it because he wants to prove something. 

Though, he's not sure what.

Later, they ask him if he'd like to go check out the freshers fair, and he doesn't really know how to say no without sounding like a dick. 

It's just as loud and annoying as he'd thought it would be. Someone tries to get him to do actual exercise on one of those rowing machines just because he's tall. It's right at that moment he thinks it's probably not for him, all this 'joining in' stuff. ,

He gets a free tote bag he's told will be useful though, so it's not all bad. It contains a condom, a rape alarm, and a leaflet on STIs. Charming.

Somewhere in the building someone pulls the pin on the free rape alarm in the early hours of the following morning but he's awake anyway and it only mildly hinders his progress on Halo, so he doesn't care too much. It does bring with it a bought of melancholy though, it's that he dislikes the most.

_Dan: is it always like this?_

He texts Phil. It's the still of the night punctuated by a shrill ringing, he thinks, that makes the world seem off kilter. 

His room is dark save the glow of the monitor, and he wishes he was on Phil's sofa or in Phil's bed. It's another wave of sadness, another bit of loneliness washing over him out of nowhere. 

He doesn't expect an answer, but he gets one anyway. 

_Phil: No. It takes time to get used to it. x_

_Dan: is 7 days long enough?_

_Phil: probably not. Did you want longer? I don't mind._

_Dan: not a fucking chance mate_

_Phil: Good. I miss you._

That makes him a bit tearful. This whole thing had been started by Phil, not Dan, so if Phil wanted him to he'd get on a bus right now and he'd be at his flat in twenty minutes. 

He knows that's not what Phil means though. 

_Dan: i miss you too_

He goes back to his game as day four turns in to day five. 

 

**Day Five.**

The plan, it seems, is to go out for drinks. 

The crate of beer finally gets some use and Dan even spends his time in the shared living room rather than his bedroom. He puts on a shirt, and drinks the shots they give him and from the outside he looks like any other uni student, happy and drunk and enjoying himself. 

He is drunk, but he isn't sure about the rest of it. 

_Dan: fcuk 7 dyas_

It's definitely too late. Phil has work early tomorrow and the message is probably ill-advised and there are any number of reasons why he shouldn't send it. But he's drunk, so he does. 

_Phil: I don't think the days want you to do that._

Why is he so lovely? Why does he always know what to say to make Dan laugh, to pop the bubble of desperation in his chest as the panic starts to rise. 

"Texting your not-girlfriend again?" 

The girl from his flat is back at his elbow, swaying slightly while she holds on to a bottle containing something bright blue and sugary. 

It's loud and she has to lean close and shout to be heard. 

"My boyfriend," he says. 

It feels good, and the surprised look on her face doesn't even bother him as much as he thought it would. 

"Is he far away?" she asks after a moment. 

Dan shakes his head. It's a little too forceful and his vision swims. 

"Not anymore," he says, "He's like, here." 

"You came here for him?" she says. 

"Not really." 

She nods. 

"Why aren't you there, then?" she asks. "I wish I was with my boyfriend." 

"I don't know," Dan says, honestly. "He wants me to make some friends I think." 

"Okay," she says, linking his arm and pulling him towards the dance floor. "Let's do that." 

Day five ends in kind of a blur, flashing lights and dance moves he'll probably be embarrassed about in the morning. But it passes, as they all do.

 

**Day Six.**

It starts with a headache, a rolling stomach, and the realisation that he has no clean clothes. 

Well, he does, there are clean pants and socks because he has those in abundance, and he can probably scrounge up a t-shirt ot two, but he'd spilt vodka down his good jeans last night and he doesn't think he can go to all his classes in sweatpants. 

It's probably the lingering alcohol in his system that gives him the impetus to gather up his clothes, put them in a suitcase because it's the only thing he has big enough to carry them all, and make his way to the laundromat. 

When he's there the hangover really kicks in. The final rush of tipsy energy he'd had wears off and the whole place it too loud and too strange and he hates it. 

By the time someone steals a sock out of someone's dirty washing pile, Dan has had enough. 

It's mid-afternoon. Phil will be off work now.

The light through the taxi window is way too bright, and the sound the lift makes on the way up to Phil's flat is too loud, but he's finally at Phil's door, knocking loudly. 

"Are you moving in?" Phil asks, with a laugh. 

"I'm using your washing machine," Dan says, charging in, nearly rolling his suitcase over Phil's socked foot. 

"Okay." 

"And I don't want to hear anything about how it's only been six days, alright?" 

Phil laughs again, closing the door and moving through the flat to help Dan locate his washing machine. 

"I'm surprised you made it this long to be honest." 

Dan spins on his foot, dropping the handle of his suitcase so that it hits the floor of Phil's kitchen with a bang. 

"Are you fucking kidding me?" 

Phil just shrugs. 

"Ugh." 

Dan steps into Phil's space and drops his head to his chest. Phil brings his arms up automatically and wraps them around Dan's shoulders, putting his cheek into the nest of Dan's hair. 

"Was it really that bad?" he asks. 

"The laundromat? Definitely. The rest of it? Eh." He shrugs in Phil's grip, jostling his arms.  
Phil just chuckles again and holds him close for a while. 

After, he washes Dan's clothes and doesn't get mad when Dan steadfastly refused to leave the comfort of Phil's sofa to help make dinner. 

"I'm not going back now," Dan says. 

"That's okay," Phil says, "I don't want you to."

Day six is both the best and the worst so far.

 

**Day Seven.**

The day starts in the same place this whole thing did. He pressed up close to Phil's back, a touch too warm under the bright colours of Phil's duvet where their bodies are both creating heat, but it's comfortable. He presses himself closer, curving his legs up so his knees slot in to the space behind Phil's and snakes and arm over his waist. 

"Hm," Phil hums. "I could get used to this." 

"Could you?" Dan asks, seriously, "because I sure could." 

Phil shifts, turns over in the bed so that their faces are close. He mustn't be able to see Dan at all without his glasses and Dan probably resembles nothing but a skin-colour blur, but Phil doesn't seem to mind. 

"That was the entire point, Dan." 

"Of what?" 

"Of the seven days thing. I want you here, and that's really selfish because you should be out doing uni and stuff."

Dan sighs. "I want to be here too, you get that right?" 

"I know, but I think that's because you're scared or whatever. And uni really isn't that bad." 

"Don't," Dan says, rolling a way a little. "Don't do that."

"Do what?" Phil asks, reaching out to put a hand on his hip to stop him rolling away too far. "What?" 

"That thing where you act like you know everything just because you're a bit older than me." 

Dan gives in to Phil's gentle, insisting hand, and rolls back towards him. 

"I don't mean to," Phil says. "That not what I mean at all. I just…" 

"I know," Dan nods. "I know that really. Yeah, uni is kind of scary, and a bit crap, and my room looks like a prison. But… there were bits that were fun. I mean, crying in the cheese aisle was a low point but some of my housemates aren't that bad." 

"You cried in a cheese aisle?" 

"Shut up," Dan smiles, "it was like, overwhelming, okay?" 

"Tea towels," Phil says. 

"Huh?" 

"I was shopping for tea towels with my mum, to bring to uni, you know?" 

"You cried looking at tea towels?" 

Phil nods, his hair rustling on the pillow. "Not my finest moment." 

Dan lets out a bit of a laugh and Phil pouts, but Dan suddenly feels warm down to his toes in a way that has nothing to do with the heat of their sheets. 

"It worked out though," he says. "In the end." 

"It will for you too." 

Dan grins. 

"Besides, if it doesn't and it really is shit and you can't stand it anymore, I'll always be here." 

"Always?" Dan asks, "Seven days a week?" 

"Yuh huh," Phil says. "All seven."


End file.
